Birthday weekend, lots of rain... but lots of Deer!!

Last weekend was my birthday...yes 21 again!! Traditionally now Sharon and I try and spend this time up in The Lakes, around our favourite mountain Blencathra. The forecast for the weekend was 'mixed' and that is how it ended up, Friday and Saturday were very nice, but as we slept in our tent Saturday night / Sunday morning the forecast change in weather arrived and it poured down with storm force winds behind it. But our tent held firm, and when the rain and wind eased on Sunday we escaped  into Keswick.
Due to our recent hospital stays we have not been walking properly for ages now, and it felt so good to be back out on the fells again, and Saturdays walk into Martindale was a mixture of a great walk with some wildlife thrown in, in the form of the wild Red Deer that roam this part of the Lakes.
Unlike the previous post where the Red Deer at Tatton Park are relatively approachable, these are truly wild and can sense you miles off, we didn't see any Stags but lots of hinds and this years fawns. All the shots I got were using the full 500mm, and a small crop as they were a long way across the valley from us, getting any closer was impossible.
Despite the weather the long weekend was brilliant, and it was with great reluctance we both returned to work!!









Blencathra from the Castlerigg Stone Circle, just down the road from where we camped



and looking the other way to the Helvelyn ridge